Giro 2015 Stage 19: Aru solos to victory in Cervinia

Fabio Aru is the best after a 236 kilometres with three tough climbs in the last quarter of the race. The young Italian is back to second in the overall, while Ryder Hesjedal finishes second and rises to seventh overall. (Slideshow route/profile)

Race report With 25 km’s done Betancur, Van der Lijke, Ulissi, Montaguti, Rutkiewicz, Visconti, Chaves, Kochetkov and Kiryienka get off the front of the bunch. The nine race to a maximum gain of 4’40”, which is down to around 4 minutes at the lower slopes of Saint-Barthélemy.

On the climb Chaves, Visconti, Kiryinka and Kochetkov are leading and just before cresting Rutkiewicz hooks up. Visconti takes most KOM points, while Kruijswijk and Intxausti escape just under the top to fight for the other points, with the Spaniard snatching most and taking the lead in the KOM-classification.

Next is Saint-Pantaléon and on the lower slopes Visconti goes solo, of course eyeing up the KOM-points since he is a KOM-contender as much as Kruijswijk and Intxausti are. The front group implodes with only Kochetkov chasing at 1 minute and the pack is 2 minutes down. Visconti gets what he wants and he is the new KOM leader.

Kochetkov is reeled in at the bottom of the climb to Cervinia and Visconti’s party is over with 10 km’s left. A little later Landa, Contador and Hesjedal attack with Aru, Kruijswijk, Konig and Uran closing in. Hesjedal goes solo and Aru not only bridges the gap, he leaves the Canadian and solos to the win.